Innovative Packaging Design

Innovative, fun, or even weird packaging design can make or break a product’s sales. Doing something different with your packaging design can bring your brand media attention, spur new sales, attract new customers, and perhaps even earn a coveted “end cap” display space at your local pharmacy, department store, or grocer.

If you haven’t got the budget for a complete packaging redesign, however, consider drawing up a new custom label for your product. Done correctly, a new label can earn the same kind of attention as a whole new package. Remember, however: your long-time customers might be upset by any large changes to the brands they’ve grown to see as a part of their lives. The best redesigns also involve a level of customer outreach—reassuring your old customers that it’s only the packaging, not the product that’s changing is key.

Here are some examples of excellent packaging to get you thinking about your own packaging.

Kleenex “Fruit” Tissues

Why does Kleenex want to associate blowing noses and picking up gross things with fruit? Hmm. Whatever the reason, the packaging looks great and draws the eye. Plus I get to pretend that it’s a big piece of fruit I’m picking up when my cat throws up in the corner.

Bananagrams Word Game

If you hate the plodding pace of Scrabble but still love proving you know more words than your friends, you should give Bananagrams a try. Even if you don’t like word games, the game’s great packaging is likely to grab your attention. It’s genius is its simplicity: a few hundred-thousand letters (exaggerating) inside a cloth bag shaped like a banana. You can take it anywhere you can find a flat surface, then humiliate your friends with your superior vocabulary. Give it a whirl!

Panasonic “Music Note” Earbuds

So simple and effective, you wonder why no one had ever thought to do it before.

Heinz “Dip & Squeeze” Ketchup Packets

Same as above. Those darn old ketchup packets gave you enough ketchup for five or six French Fries or maybe 1/3 of a hamburger. Now: dip or squeeze. And! More ketchup to dip or squeeze.

Vilpuri Bread

Cute packaging design reminds me that I’m due for a grilled cheese sandwich. Overdue, in fact.

Norsk Ot Beer

Also overdue for a nice cold beer… from the head of a gnome. Maybe I’ll hold off on the beer.

Stop n’ Grow

Eww. I know this is more of an advertisement than a package, but I like to think that some store sells anti-nail-biting products and then forces their customers to walk around screaming to the world about their bad habits in the form of a bag. Devious, effective, Stop n’ Grow. I just wrote their new tagline!

Spark Laundry Detergent

There are the times when being literal with your packaging end up looking cheeky (and fun).

Waitrose Fresh Herbs

It’s always smart to think carefully about the typeface that’s right for your packaging. The right font can make a huge difference in tone and feeling.

Taishan Emperor Love Oolong Tea

And in rare cases, sometimes you don’t need any typeface at all.

Many of these examples of excellent packaging design have won awards, recognizing their innovation. The most famous award given for product packaging is the Pentawards. Check them out for more great ideas for your product!